1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to recreational furniture and, more particularly, to tables and benches for collapsed storage or for portable recreational use.
2. The Background Art
Seating and tables have been the subject of numerous designs in furniture over a millennia. Furniture within homes, offices, and other places of meeting may be large, heavy, unwieldy, and may even be assembled in-place. However, another class of seating and tables exists.
Portable, or storable, tables and seating have been used for decades if not centuries. Stools, foldable assemblies, drop-down work spaces (tables, workbenches), and so forth have been the subject of many designs. Banquet tables are often manufactured to be readily collapsible in order to facilitate rapid setup and takedown, storage, moving, and the like.
Similarly, recreational tables have been developed over many years. Recreational tables may be fixed in place. For example, concrete, wood, metal, and the like have been used as the frames, top surfaces, and so forth in tables. Durability has been a major factor in the construction of recreational tables for outdoor use. To a lesser extent, portability has become a factor in the design and construction of recreational tables.
Tables are frequently used in conjunction with chairs. Typically, benches are more efficient than chairs in the ability to seat numerous persons at a table. However, benches need stability. Moreover, benches tend to be quite heavy. An individual chair may be made in a size and weight to be readily transportable, foldable (collapsible), storable, and the like. By contrast, a bench becomes an article of a size similar to that of a table. Moreover, stability often dictates a size or weight that is not readily adaptable to be portable or storable.
Tables have become more portable, collapsible, storable, and the like in more recent years. However, most systems for picnic-type tables are not collapsible, readily storable, lightweight, or the like. Certain small systems have become prevalent in recent years. However, the size and utility of such collapsible systems has been marginal.
Storage is a matter of space, weight, and the availability of people to store and deploy equipment. Tables that are too large become difficult to store without the use of several people. Moreover, storage of tables, benches, chairs, etc., may demand substantial space.
What is needed is a readily storable, collapsible table system having seating integrated therein. For example, it would be advantageous to have a table with a bench integrated within the table. Preferably, the bench could remain within the envelope (projected area or space requirement) of the table when stored. Likewise, it would be advantageous to have a bench that may remain nested within a table during storage.
In certain situations, tables are used for serving, display, and the like. In such situations, seating is not required. Nevertheless, a table that is integrated with a bench or other seating typically deploys to space the seating somewhat away from the table itself Accordingly, such a table tends to be heavy, bulky, and keeps viewers or passersby a distance away from the table. Accordingly, a table used for display or serving is not easily viewed with attached benches deployed at knee or shin level for a passerby, keeping such passersby away from the table top.
What is needed is a table that is collapsible but capable of containing its own seating. Moreover, it would be advantageous if the seating could be selectively deployed or stored within the envelope of the table without effecting the ability of the table to be used without deployment of the benches.
Also, it would be advantageous to have the benches separable from the table. For example, although benches and tables are often used in conjunction with one another, it may be advantageous to use benches independently from the table. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to be able to remove benches from the table for placement in another desirable location.
For example, around a campfire, or other recreational center of activity, a bench may be necessary or desirable. If benches must remain attached to a table in order for either one or both to be functional, then freedom to move the benches to a more desirable location is substantially limited. It would be advantageous in the art to have a table that may be deployed independently from its benches. Nested storage whether during transportation, or storage during the actual independent deployment of the table alone with the benches unneeded, would be a substantial advantage. Such a system in a size to be functionally equivalent to a banquet or picnic table, and of a weight suitable for portability would be very desirable.
In view of the foregoing, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a readily collapsible table and bench system that is completely nested within the envelope of the table. In one embodiment, a table may contain legs secured to pivot from an end of a table. For example, a pedestal may be formed having one or more legs extending from a frame of a table to a foot for placement on a surface. The pedestal or legs may extend from an end of a table toward the ground or surface for supporting the table.
Alternatively, the pedestal or legs may extend from the table, or an underside thereof, at a point spaced away from the end of the table. For example, banquet tables may advantageously have additional access for persons to sit at the end thereof if a table leg or pedestal is spaced away from the end of the table. Accordingly, in one embodiment, a table and bench system may be constructed to have a leg or pedestal extending away from the table toward a supporting surface, but secured at a distance spaced from an end of a table and designed to permit seating of a user at the end of the table.
Consistent with the foregoing objects, and in accordance with the invention as embodied and broadly described herein, an apparatus and method are disclosed, in suitable detail to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention. In certain embodiments an apparatus and method in accordance with the present invention may include an upper surface formed of wood, plastic, or other material selected for weight, strength, and the like.
Moreover, the table may have reinforcement by way of a stringer or rail in order to improve the section modulus, stiffness and strength of the table. Benches may also have stringers or rails extending therealong. In an alternative embodiment, the section modulus of the table, or bench, or both may be improved by changing the thickness or width of the principal body thereof in order to obtain structural materials spaced as far as possible from the neutral axis (extend the outermost fiber). As a practical matter, the legs or pedestals of the table and bench, as well as the feet associated with those pedestals, may be formed of metal, and may be designed to have a tubular cross-section for improving strength while minimizing weight.
A system of latches, detents, and the like may be formed along an underside of the table in order to latch the benches into place, secure the legs of the benches and the legs of the table to remain secured against the underside of the table, and so forth.
The table and benches may be formed of wood, metal, such as extrusions or expanded metal, whether steel or aluminum, and the like. Moreover, the tables, benches, or both may be fabricated of certain plastics, for example, the table top and the bench tops may be formed of blow-molded or vacuum formed polymeric resins. Alternatively, large expanses of sophisticated cross-section may be formed in a tumble-molding operation. The section modulus of the table may be improved by blow molding or tumble molding.
Also in certain embodiments, the tables, bench, or both may be filled with expanded polymeric materials, such as expanded polystyrene or expanded urethane in order to protect against bucking failure of hollow sections. In other embodiments, the wall thickness of a plastic table or plastic bench may be substantially increased to provide sufficient stiffness and strength without interior stiffeners such as expanded plastics or polymers or with fewer stiffeners.
In an alternate preferred embodiment of the present invention, the table includes a table top having a cavity that is configured with an internal periphery sufficient for receiving one or more seat members therein when the table is positioned in a collapsed position. In operation, the support pedestals of the table may be pivoted from an extended position into a collapsed position, such that the pedestals are introduced within the internal periphery of the cavity and substantially rest against the underside of the table top. In one presently preferred embodiment, the seat members are preferably introduced within the internal periphery of the cavity of the table top in such a manner so as to secure the support pedestals of the table in the collapsed position during storage of the table.
In particular, the collapsible table is selectively positionable between a first upright position above a surface and a second collapsible position for storage. The support pedestals of the table and one or more seat members may be selectively retained within an internal periphery of a cavity formed in the table top. Specifically, the disposition of the seat members within the cavity and in relation to each other provides a means for also securing the support pedestals of the table in the collapsed position within the cavity for storage. The present invention also contemplates a collapsible table which does not include a cavity that is configured to receive the support pedestals and the seat members, but rather comprises sufficient hardware to securely fasten the support pedestals of the table and the corresponding seat members into selective engagement with the underside of the table top.